I am doing cardio on tue, thur and sat, to maintain my aerobic fitness because i do not want to be winded after climbing up a flight of stairs.

I am not trying to bulk up and is instead aiming for a gradual gain of lean mass of about 2lbs a month.

I did not want to do too much abs coz I fear it might interfere with my recovery and also I read that abs are used as stabilizers in other compound movements already.

I changed exercise for each bodypart except shoulders because behind the neck press is dangerous and front military press does not hit my lateral head that well.

I originally wanted to do deadlifts on wed, but my form really sucked on dl.
I keep scraping my shins against the bar and had difficulty lowering the bar while keeping my lower back straight.

Could some of the gurus here give me some advice about my routine and deadlift form.

There are no good and bad; no right and wrong. There were effective actions and ineffective actions, socially acceptable and unacceptable behaviour, wise and stupid decisions to be made. But if you wanted to achieve maximum sefl-realisation, you had to understand that any choice you made was entirely value neutral. Morality was a primitive concept, useful in earlier stages of societal evolution, perhaps, but without relevance in the modern age.

...............

if you're doing the original 5x5 (PL style) then you will only be hitting failure on the last set. you must have a set rest interval ( 1min ) and once you can get all 5 sets and 5 reps with the weight then you increase the weight.

Train like an animal
Eat like a horse
Sleep like a baby
Grow like a weed

I've got more mass than a church on sunday.

someone, somewhere is training harder with less excuses.

the harder I lift and the more I eat, the better my genetics seem to get.

Re: modifed 5X5 with full-body workout

Originally posted by banned
I am not trying to bulk up and is instead aiming for a gradual gain of lean mass of about 2lbs a month.

I did not want to do too much abs coz I fear it might interfere with my recovery and also I read that abs are used as stabilizers in other compound movements already.

I am not sure what your goal is. You say you do not want to bulk up - you want to add lean mass. Are you saying you do not want to eat more and gain mass and fat? If this is the case then that would have little or nothing to do with the workout, it would be your diet. Are you looking to gain size or strength?

If you are having problems with the dead lift you might want to consider Good Mornings in place of.

Throwing in some ab work at the end of a workout should not interfere with your recovery. Not getting the abs strong enough will impact your ability to lift heavy in some cases added to the fact if the back muscles get too much stronger than the abs, it can cause problems with the lower back from the pelvis not staying in alignment.

Question is: are you really going to mind if you hit your goals without puking 3 times a week?
by Daniel Roberts

your routine looks good to me. you might want to try doing 2 or 3 sets if 5 is to much and then you can try working your way up to 5 sets . you can also try training 2 days a week like mon and thursday if 3 days are to much. i hope this helps.

yup, i try to hit failure on last set @ 5 or less reps, if i manage to do 5 i wll up the weights.

I do not want to do a classic bulk up phase when i eat 1000 calories more than my maintaince level. Instead i want to stay lean and go for an increase of about 500 calorie a day only. I believe this will give me moderate gain in muscle with minimal gain in bodyfat.

Since i am only doing 5 sets (total) to failure , excluding abs, each day; and some hit routine actually suggest up to 10 exercises (ie 10set to failure), am i still considered overtraining?

There are no good and bad; no right and wrong. There were effective actions and ineffective actions, socially acceptable and unacceptable behaviour, wise and stupid decisions to be made. But if you wanted to achieve maximum sefl-realisation, you had to understand that any choice you made was entirely value neutral. Morality was a primitive concept, useful in earlier stages of societal evolution, perhaps, but without relevance in the modern age.

When you get the lifts up, then you will need to reduce volume. I'd suggest 2 changes, you may even want to implement them right away.

A) Reduce training to twice per week. 3 days is ALOT at full body compound movements like you have. Eventually once every four days. And on routines very similar, guys make ecdellent progress on a Monday, Friday, Wednesday, Monday, etc. split when they are nearing the end of a cycle.

B) Exchange the leg press for a deadlift version. Traditional bent leg one would be my choice. MUCH better for your routine.

Two additional points. You might want to consider 20 Rep squats, one work set. Doing low rep squats and deadlifts (or leg press) in same cycle is very hard on joints. I recvommend 20 Rep breathing squats, the king of lifting.

And you will want some fractional plates to extend your cycle. Adding 5 pounds can get to be alot. I have some 2 inch washers that I can add 1 1'4, 2 1/2, and 3 3/4 pounds with. Very important for later in a cycle. You want to extend the gains as long as you can.

When they stop coming, take 10 days off. Go back to training with similar routine at 10 - 15% reduced weight. Then climb the mountain again and push through to new gains.

Go with this and see yourself transform. Get proper rest and adequate protein/calories.

Lifting ain't rocket science. Have fun and keep on the track you are on. You are ahead of 90% of the lifting public already.

Honest John: Thanks for your advice.
If, I switched to doing deadlifts, should I do 20 rep deadlifts too?

I still can't figure out how to not scrap my shins while doing deadlifts. Because I live in a tropical country and my gym has no air-con, I guess wearing pants is out of the question.
How 'bout the negative phase, are you suppose to lower it for 4sec like most other movements?

There are no good and bad; no right and wrong. There were effective actions and ineffective actions, socially acceptable and unacceptable behaviour, wise and stupid decisions to be made. But if you wanted to achieve maximum sefl-realisation, you had to understand that any choice you made was entirely value neutral. Morality was a primitive concept, useful in earlier stages of societal evolution, perhaps, but without relevance in the modern age.

When I do 5x5 in my full body workouts the first 2 and even 3 are warmups.

5x5 means alot of things to alot of people. For some it is all work sets. I've never done this, so can't directly comment, but yes 5 work sets per exercise seems excessive to me. Some guys make it work. But more in specializing a certain exercise in a routine with much reduced volume surrounding it. ie.

Squat 1 set 20 reps

Bench 5x5

Chin 2 sets of 8

Overhead Press 1 sets of 8

Shrug 1 set of 10

Also full body routines mean different things to different people. Some guys don't think it's full body unless ALL bodyparts are worked. Calves, tris, bis, etc.

To me a full body workout can mean

Deadlift Dip Row

5x5 wouldn't seem so bad in this. I personally don't like abbreviating this much. But some do and claim great gains.

I am a bit slow here, how did 63 sets come into picture. I'm doing 4 of 5x5 for 20 sets plus 1 abs, for 21 sets excluding warmups. Including the 3 sets of warmup i do, 21+(3*4)=33.

For, 5x5 not all sets are to failure. I aim to fail only at the last set. From, a HIT point of view I'm actually only doing 4 worksets plus 1 for abs.
Of course , I'm also doing 4 heavy warmup sets.

There are no good and bad; no right and wrong. There were effective actions and ineffective actions, socially acceptable and unacceptable behaviour, wise and stupid decisions to be made. But if you wanted to achieve maximum sefl-realisation, you had to understand that any choice you made was entirely value neutral. Morality was a primitive concept, useful in earlier stages of societal evolution, perhaps, but without relevance in the modern age.

originally, 5x5 is a variation of 10x10 (GVT) and this means you go to failure only on the last rep. but still the other sets are considered working sets, and "heavy warm-up set" is a BS concept IMO anyway.

the split and exercises could be better, i agree to kane that the 5x5 regimen is more something you split. i'd vote for something like this:

I mentioned I consider full body workout to be all body worked in one day
you said you were going to do this workout as a full body workout
after I said what I said
so I added up all the work your going to be doing
why does no one get this?!

but see you got it split up into 3 days
that's not a full body workout that's a split

No-Dope-Crew.

here's something more constructive
I helped a guy gain 1/4" on his biceps with 1 workout, and it was definatly volume training
eat that you buncha HIT nazi's
(also helped Jesin gain 6/10 " and Q gained 1/10th", also DoctorX2k2 gained 1/4")

-unrelated bicep comment-
and btw, I can Hammer Curl the 120's dangit!

Legs, chest, back and shoulders are all trained each session, with different exercises, except for shoulders. I skipped arms because I guess they got worked with the compound movements already.
1 major thing missed would be calves. I guess I would do them after my gains on this routine taper off, and I switch to a new split.

There are no good and bad; no right and wrong. There were effective actions and ineffective actions, socially acceptable and unacceptable behaviour, wise and stupid decisions to be made. But if you wanted to achieve maximum sefl-realisation, you had to understand that any choice you made was entirely value neutral. Morality was a primitive concept, useful in earlier stages of societal evolution, perhaps, but without relevance in the modern age.

Originally posted by ferbie originally, 5x5 is a variation of 10x10 (GVT) and this means you go to failure only on the last rep. but still the other sets are considered working sets, and "heavy warm-up set" is a BS concept IMO anyway.

the split and exercises could be better, i agree to kane that the 5x5 regimen is more something you split. i'd vote for something like this:

MON
bench press
military press
dips
upright rows

WED
squat
deadlift
straight leg deadlift
rope crunches

FRI
BB row
wide grip chins
T-bar row
supinated grip chins

The heavy warmup sets is a tounge-in-cheek comment .

Regarding the routine you suggested, is it that i do 5x5 for all exercises?

There are no good and bad; no right and wrong. There were effective actions and ineffective actions, socially acceptable and unacceptable behaviour, wise and stupid decisions to be made. But if you wanted to achieve maximum sefl-realisation, you had to understand that any choice you made was entirely value neutral. Morality was a primitive concept, useful in earlier stages of societal evolution, perhaps, but without relevance in the modern age.

5x5x5: a modified version of 5x5

Hey i love 5x5 routines but i think there is a better way that whole body workouts. My METHOD CALLS FOR MORE SETS...BUT THE WAY I DO 5X5 THE FIRST 2 SETS ARE PROGRESSIVELY HEAVIER WARMUPS...
here is a 5x5x5 routine i do in the offseason for 3-4 weeks....

Day 1
Squat
Leg Press
Sldl
Leg Curl
Lunge
all for 5 sets of 5 reps

Day 2

Bench Press
Incline
Dips
Close Grip
Dip Machine
nb-- the dips are weighted and with a forwrd lean and so they are more a chest exercise. the Dip machine is donw upright and is geared towards triceps.

Ok so the thing here is u do 5 exercises per bodypart for 5 sets of 5 reps each. THE FIRST 2 SETS ARE WARMUPS AND THEN I DO 3 VERY HEAVY SETS OF 5. It is a little different but the program melds a little powerlifting with the bodybuilding style training. I use for close to a month during my offseason and the strength and size gains i had were very good...maybe you all could give it a try

There are no good and bad; no right and wrong. There were effective actions and ineffective actions, socially acceptable and unacceptable behaviour, wise and stupid decisions to be made. But if you wanted to achieve maximum sefl-realisation, you had to understand that any choice you made was entirely value neutral. Morality was a primitive concept, useful in earlier stages of societal evolution, perhaps, but without relevance in the modern age.